Electric protection system.



G. U. CARPENTER.

ELECTRIC PROTECTION SYSTEM. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 23, 1908 927, 1 1 1. Patented July 6, 1909. SSHBETS-SHEBT 1 WITNESSES. INVENTOR v cm! $13M i BY G. U. CARPENTER.

ELECTRIC PROTECTION SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 23. 1908.

Patented July 6, 1909 3 SHEETS-SHEET 2 INVENTOR hm mm B EIE] WITNESSES: M

l ATTORNEYS U. U. CARPENTER.

ELECTRIC PROTECTION SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED NOV23,1908.

927,11 1 Patented July 6, 1909.

3SHEETS-SHEET 3 INVE/WUR WITNESSES: 71% W4 7 M W, fig/{1Q I; M w

ATTORNEYS CHARLES UNDERWOOD CARPENTER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ELECTRIC PROTECTION SYSTEM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 6, 1909.

Application filed November 23, 1908 Serial No. 463,995.

To oll whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES U. CAR- PENTER, of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Electric Protection Systems, and do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

My invention is especially applicable to systems of electric protection for apartment houses. It can be used, however, to equal advantage in other kinds of buildings, such as ofiice buildings and hotels. It is also apphcable even to groups of buildings, that is to say, where some centrally located building 15 used as an alarm station for the urpose of protecting a number of buildings ocated at other points in the same community. In applying the invention to a group of buildi-ngs, as suggested, the maximum advantage would be gained from protecting .buildings which it would be desirable to rotect for a considerable period of time, sucli as the protection of dwellings while the occupants are away for a seasonor more. When the invention isapplied to a building, it is necessary for anyone desiring to throw off the electric system of protection before entering the building, or some part thereof, to go either to the alarm station or central office, which terms are designed to be synonymous, to operate a switch in order to disconnect or shunt out, as the case might be, the portion of the alarm circuit, protecting the structure which it is desired to enter.

My invention is a plicable to the rotection of an entire buil ing or a portion t ereof, but it is preferably designed to be ap lied to the rotection of safes, and especia y to a num er of safes located at numerous points in a single building. In the latter case, there would, of course, be a central oflice in the same building with the safes to be protected,

to actuate an alarm located at the central ofiice. The alarm circuit is adapted to be controlled in such a way that any one of the structures to be protected can be thrown out of the protective system-at anytime by a key-operated switch, also located at the central office. All of the main circuits are connected with'an annunciator. Preferably the annunciator and all of the key-operated switches are located within one casing in proximity to each other. The key-operated switches may be of such a character that they may all be operated by one and the same key. Still, a much more effective arrangement is to have each key-oieratcd switch adapted to be operated by a iflerent ke so that where the safes are located in'70 di erent a artments, in an apartment house, for examp e, the occupant o one apartment would be provided with a key adapted only too erate the protectivesystem for his safe.

I ave'shown and described my invention in connection with a normally closed'main circuit. I wish it, however, to be under stood, that it is equally applicable to a normally open main circuit, in which case the usual and wellknown changes would be made to adaptit for this purpose.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a diagrammatic representation of the entire system applied to the protection of a number of rooms or apartments located in the same building; Fig, 2 is a horizontal section of the front portion of a safe included within the rotective circuit; Fi 3 is a fragmental View, in elevation, of the e ectric circuit as applied to the inner face of the safe door Fig. 4 is a horizontal section of one side of the safe, showing the method of controlling the circuit at the rear of the safe; Fig. 5 is a fragmental view of the casing, containing the annunciator and the key-operated switches; and' Fig. 6 is a detail view of the alarm mechanism.

In the drawings 1 represents each of a series of rooms or apartments in which is located a safe 2 adapted tobe connected by a connected with a series of' relays 10 from which current passes to a casing 6, containing an annunciator 7 and key-operated swltches 8. The other pole of the battery is grounded at 9. Each magnet 10, normally, in the closed condition of the main circuit, attracts an armature 11 in opposition to the force of a spring 12, apted to retract the armature.

Each armature 11 is located within a normally open alarm circuit 13, which, when the main circuit is broken and the armature 11 released, is adapted to be closed by the armae ture coming in contact with a terminal 14. The alarm circuit contains the usual alarm bell 15. It is also provided with a switch 16, so that the entire system can be thrown out of operation.

17 represents a battery for supplying current to the alarm circuit, which 1s provided with a pluralitv of branches leading to each of the armatures 11 and the terminals 14.

As shown in Fig. 5, each key-operated switch is constructed in the following manner: One terminal of the alarm circuit is connected to the electrical conducting casing 6. A portion of each branch of the alarm circuit proceeding from the alarm mechanism, after entering the casing 6, is connected with an insulated spring contact .18 supported at the bottom of the casing. A vertically reciprocable bar 19 is ada ted to be moved into and out of contact wit the contact 18 by the use of a key of the ordinary ty e, which may be inserted in a key-hole 20. X usual type of lock mechanism is providedat 21, so as to prevent the bar 19 from being reciprocated except when the proper key is mserted in the part1cular-key-hole to operate the switch.

In Fig. is shown a means for connecting the main circuit with the safe door. One terminal of the main circuit contacts with the mclosing and conducting casing of the safe at 22. The other terminal is led into the safe at any convenient point through an insulatmg tube 23, and is finally attached at the door frame to a contact 24 supported u on an Insulating block 25. The door 26 of t e safe .2 at the corresponding" point is provided with a sIpring-pressed contact 27, adapted norma y to be pressed into contact with the contact-24 by means of a spring 28. The conducting portion of the spring contact 27 1s carried by an insulating block 29 supported upon the inner face of the door. From this point the main circuit is led by means of a wire 30 to a spring finger 31 supported upon an insulat ing block 32. The end of the sprmg finger is bent for a short distance at r ght angles to form a contact 33 resting u on a (118k 34 fixedly attached to the'inner en of ashaft 35, constituting a portion of a combination look 36. The disk 34 is made of some non-conducting material and is provlded at one point with a plug 37 made of conducting material and adapted to conduct 7 the current to the contact 33 from the shaft 35 of the combination lock. The details of the disk 34 and the contact finger 31 are Referrin now to Fig. 4, the main circuit is rovlde with a branch 38 which is attac ed to as ring contact 39 supported upon a. portion 0 the outer casing of the safe.

safe door at this point is provided with a are shown and described as a series of safes rom the conducting plug through the insuof the safe, and in the o erative osition 0 The spring contact 39 is adapted at times to be forced into contact with conducting plate 39, which is attached to the remaining branch of thecircuit by a wire 40. The conductin plate 39 is supported by an insulating b ock 41. A rod 42 passes through a pipe 43 embedded in the wall of the safe and rests upon the inner face of the spring contact 39. The other end of the rod 42 terminates "at the front of the safe in the path of the free end 44 of the safe door 26-. The

projection 45, which, in the closed position of the door, pushes the rod 42 toward the rear, in which osition it makes electric contact between t e conducting plate 39, and the spring contact 39.

I have shown on the drawings a safe consisting of an exterior metal casing 2 rovided with fire-proof filling material 46. 1t will be readily seen, however, that the wires could be just as easily connected in the pro er manner to a safe which is made entire y of conducting material.

The apparatus operates as follows: The current proceeds from the battery 5, and then passes through each of the magnets 10, where the main circuit is divided to produce one branch for each of the magnets. All of these branches then proceed into the casing 6 to the annunciator 7, and connections are made at this point with the annunciator so that each element of the annunciator will indicate the condition of each branch of the main circuit. The several branches of the main circuit then pass through the casing 6 and out of the central office 4 to the various protected structures, which in this instance located in various rooms. Each branch of the main circuit is connected to the outer conducting wall of a safe, through which current passes to the combination lock.36 located in the door of the safe, and thence to the conducting plug 37 located in the disk 34 carried upon the combination lock shaft 35. In the operative position of the ap aratus, as shown in the drawings, that is, w en the main circuit'is closed through the conducting plug'in the aforesaid'disk, the current passes lated spring finger 31, thence through the wire 30, the door contacts 27, 24, thence through the pipe 23, and finally to a wire that is grounded.' As shown in Fig. 4, a subsidiary branch of each of the aforesaid branches of the main circuit is led to therea this branch, '5. 6., that s own in ig. 4, th circuit is closed at this. point also.

Inthe closed position of the main circui as described, the several armatures 11 wil be attracted to the various relay magnets 1 so that the alarm circuit is broken in each 0 its branches. Should any branch of th r of the alarm circuit.

be actuated to show the location of the structure upon which an attack has been made.

'henever it is desired to disconnect the protective system so that the protected structure may be entered by an authorized person without ringing the alarm, the person in question goes to the central oliice and by the insertion of his key into the particular key-operated switch which controls his portion of the protective system, disconnects the branch of the alarm circuit corresponding to his portion of the protective system. Under these circumstances, when he then proceeds to open his safe and thereby breaks the portion of the main circuit corresponding thereto, the armature in the relay controlled by this branch of the protective circuit is released, and allowed to be retracted into contact with the conducting terminal 14. however, does not cause the alarm to ring, inasmuch as the key-operated switch corre sponding to this particular relay and armature has been operated to break this branch Consequently, although the alarm circuit has been closed at the relay corresponding to this branch of the alarm circuit, nevertheless the break produced by the operation of the key-operatecl switch prevents the alarm circuit from being entirely completed.

It will be seen from the very small size of the conducting plug 37 located in the insu-' lating disk 34, that if any attempt is made to enter the safe by moving the combination lock, the main circuit will immediately become broken so as to ringthe alarm. But even if no attempt is made to disturb the position of the combination look but the door of the safe is opened, the consequent release of the s ring contact located at the rear of the safe wil cause it to spring-away from the conducting late 39 so as to break the main circuit at t is point, resulting in the ringing of the alarm at the central oflice. Further more, it will be obvious that if any attemit is made to disable the system by cutting t e wires located in the main circuit, this also will result in the ringing of the alarm.

Usually in the installation of my apparatus, I locate the alarm mechanism, to-

gether with theannunciator and the key operated switches, in a central oflice where there is preferably alwa s someone present. This would, of course, lie necessary merely This,

because of the use of an annunciator, inasmuch as whenever any one of the circuits is tampered with so as to ring the alarm, the call should be immediately answered and the cause of the break in the main circuit inquired into. Under these circumstances, the key-operated switches have far greater utility than could possibly be'the case were the key-operated switches located at various points ina building, or even in some room where ordinarily there is no one present. This follows from the fact that it would be very di'fiicult indeed for anyone to enter the central ollice, where the instruments are being continually watched, and operate a switch to throw off a protective circuit with out being the true owner of the proper key designed to operate the switch of this circuit. .lvcn if the proper key had been loaned to someone by'the true owner thereof, it would be only natural when such a person should attempt to operate the key-opcratcd switch corresponding to that key, for the clerk or other person located in the central oilice to inquire into the reasons why he was in possession of the proper key, and why he desired to throw off the electric protection from any particular protected structure, such as a safe.

It will be clear from the numerous applica tions of my invention that are possible, some of which have been herein described, that .many changes might be made in the details of the invention and in the details of its ap plication to the protection of various different structures, without departing from the fundamental principles thereof.

ll claim:

1. In a device of the character described, the combination of a plurality of protected structures distantly removed from one another, a main electric protective circuit therefor, an alarm mechanism and a series of key-operated switches in proximity to one another, each of vhich is adapted when opened to remove the alarm mechanism from the control of a corresponding protected structure.

2. In a device of the character described, the combination of a plurality of protected structures distantly removed from one an-' other, a main electric protective circuit having a plurality of branches, each of which includesione of said structures, an alarm mechanism and a series of key-operated switches, each of which isada ted when opened to remove the alarm mec ani'sm from the control of a corres onding protected structure.

3. In a evice of the character described,

the combination of aplurality of protected 1 structures, a main electric protective circuit therefor, an alarm circuit containing an alarm controlled by the main circuit, and a series of key-operated switches located in the alarm circuit, each of which is adaptcyd when opened to remove the alarm fromthe control of a corresponding protected structure.

4. In a device of the character described, the combination of a plurality of protected structures distantly removed from one another, a main electric protective circuit therefor, an alarm circuit containing an alarm controlled by the main circuit, and a series of key-operated switches located in the alarm circuit, each of which is adapted when opened to remove the alarm from the control of a corresponding protected structure.

5. In a device of the character described, the combination of a plurality of protected structures distantly removed from one another, a main protective circuit therefor, an alarm circuit, containing an alarm controlled by the main circuit, and a series of key-operated switches located in the alarm circuit at a central oilice, each of which is adapted when opened to remove the alarm from the control of a corresponding protected structure.

6. In a device of the character described, the combination of a plurality of protected structures distantly removed-from one another, a main electric protective circuit having a plurality of branches, all of which are operatively connected with an annunciator,

CHARLES UNDEKWQOD CARPENTER.

Witnesses:

H. H. SMITH, ADELE H. WRIGHT. 

